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Porirua - Helpline: 0800 141 967

If you don't have the essentials* you need to get through the lockdown, in the first instance please try calling a:

👉 neighbour👉 family member who lives nearby👉 friend who lives nearby👉 you could also check the availability for shopping online.

*Essential goods include water, food and grocery items, clothing, bedding and blankets, cooking and eating utensils, fuel for cooking and heating, medication and cleaning and sanitary products. Find out more here

If these options are not available to you, and you need urgent and immediate help, then please call our Council welfare support helpline on 0800 141 967, 7 days a week, 9am to 5pm (outside those hours you can request a call-back).

Request a callback - if you would like someone to call you back about getting your essential household supplies, please click here to complete a callback form. Someone from our Council team will call you back to see how they can best help you.

Alert Level 2 in Porirua City

New Zealand will move to Alert Level 2 at 11:59pm on Wednesday, 13 May 2020. This will see some big changes in Porirua as many Council facilities and services are able to reopen at Level 2, but in a safe and limited way,

The Council offices at 16 Cobham Court are open. We are following Government guidelines and ask everyone to do the same so we all stay healthy and safe.

You'll find a range of information below to help answer your questions about everything from how this is affecting the city's parks and recycling collection, to how we are managing rates and access to Whenua Tapu cemetery.

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Building Consent - processing officers and business support team members will continue to work from home on building consent and code compliance applications. Any new applications should be submitted using our online portal.

Building inspections will resume from Tuesday 28 April 2020 onwards for construction sites that have an active Covid-19 control plan in place. Please see links to NZ Covid-19 Construction Protocols and additional guidance:

Code compliance certificate applications - As above, we will continue to process code compliance certificate applications. We also request that any new code compliance certificate applications are submitted using the online portal.

To all our business whanau in Porirua , we know you are going through uncertain and tough times during the pandemic.

We have partnered with WellingtonNZ to support you with advice and useful information. You can contact the business response team at www.wellingtonnz.com/business/contact-us and we’ll get back to you within 1-3 working days.

You can also call 04 555 0084 to leave a voicemail for our team. Click here if you want information on how to apply for a Covid-19 Wage Subsidy.

We know this is a difficult time. Please look after yourselves and each other.

👉Do you want to offer help?

Volunteering

How can I help look after others?

Unless you are an essential worker, the best way you can help others is by staying home and helping people from there.

Kindness is an incredibly powerful way to show you are united against Covid-19. You can make a huge difference by talking to people over the phone or online - checking in on older relatives or vulnerable people to make sure they have everything they need, or talking to friends, whānau and neighbours over the phone to see how they are and if they need support.

These kinds of connections and offers of help will go a long way to getting others through Covid-19.

If you are part of an existing or new volunteer group or organisation

If your group would like to support volunteer initiatives related to the Covid-19 response or related community needs, please contact your local civil defence organisation or Council in the first instance to ensure that support is co-ordinated.

It is important to stay at home and only communicate with your group over the phone or via the internet, do not meet in person. Please don’t put any newsletters or notes through letterboxes on a large scale, as any surface can spread the virus.

Delivering essential supplies

Covid-19 can live on surfaces, so any objects which pass between people are potential ways for the virus to spread.

Thank you to everyone who has been involved in helping so far, but to contain the spread of Covid-19 it is important that only essential services carry out large scale delivery services and other community work.

Unless you are an essential worker, you should only deliver essential supplies to nearby friends, family and whanau, and close neighbours. Do this only if it is absolutely necessary.

You should only deliver to a few people and you must remain loyal to these people for the entire lockdown. The more people you deliver to, the higher the risk.

Aotea Lagoon is open but please observe social distancing of 1 metre from people not in your bubble.

Drinking fountains are turned off

Gates to city beaches are locked, while the regional council has closed all regional parks to vehicles, along with toilets. It is asking that anyone wanting to walk or bike in the regional parks do so close to your home.

Mountain bike tracks are open. Mountain biking is okay if you are experienced and know the trail. Stick to easy trails. Make sure you maintain a two metre distance from other people.

Parks, reserves and walking tracks are open. Please follow Government guidelines and stay 2 metres away from anyone not in your household.

Picnic areas are open but please keep numbers to 10 or under. Our public BBQs are closed for now, as a safety precaution.

Skate parks are open

Splash pad at Aotea Lagoon is open.

Tennis, netball and any other fenced courts are open, but please observe social distancing of 2 metres from people not in your bubble.

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The Covid19 pandemic is changing the world as we know it. The actual impacts are unknowable. What we do know is that our essential city services need to continue and that’s what rates pay for. The Government has provided a significant injection to salaries and wages to enable essential household bills to be paid.

Water and waste water services, roading, our parks, our cemetery and crematorium, our planning services and most importantly our emergency services (we used to call it civil defence) are all essential.

Council staff in non-essential services who do not fit into the vulnerable categories described by the Prime Minister will be redeployed to help in those essential services or into our emergency works especially welfare for people in our community. So our staff will continue to keep the city running no matter what.

Rates Payment Options

If individual ratepayers are experiencing hardship we will consider payment options on a case by case basis. The Council still needs money to pay for critical services. Defaulting will make our recovery slower, painful and more expensive. As long as you agree a payment plan with us then no late penalties will apply.

If you are in genuine hardship then please contact us through rates@poriruacity.govt.nz and someone will be in touch to help you with a payment plan.

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If you don't have the essentials* you need to get through the lockdown, in the first instance please try calling a:

neighbour

family member who lives nearby

friend who lives nearby

you could also check the availability for shopping online.

If these options are not available to you, and you need urgent and immediate help, then please call our Council welfare support helpline on 0800 141 967, 7 days a week, 9am to 5pm (outside those hours you can request a call-back). Need a callback? please click here to complete a callback form.